My son will be a 9th grader next year and believes that he’d like to play D1 soccer in college. He’s been evaluated by numerous coaches and been told he is off the charts in terms of skills (he is a goalie). He has been offered roster spots on several high level teams, one being a USSDA team. This is all well and good, but the problem is we live in the country and we are at least 1.5 hours away from any of these competitive teams. It may be possible to drive in once or twice a week, but academy has practice 4x per week plus travel to games and we just can’t make that work as a family. I suppose we could look at a soccer boarding school, but then I start to think I’ve gone off the deep end with all of this.
Continued… He currently plays for a small club which is fun and provide good it limited training. And probably doesn’t provide the visibility he needs to play D1. Any thoughts from soccer families?
I’m sorry, one more thing to add. He doesn’t need scholarship money. Our goal is just To help him play at the highest possible level.
It’s a family choice. He may be able to play in college just off his high school team and the local club team, especially if he goes to summer camps. However, the advice you are receiving is also correct, that the higher the level he plays now, the better his chances of playing at the best D1 programs in the future. Not required, but more likely he’ll have more exposure, top coaching, top competiton.
Take a look at some of the college rosters of schools that might be of interest to him - obviously fairly difficult because he’s only in 9th grade - most schools will list a player’s history somewhere on the website.
I expect you will quickly see that most players at that level come from DA programs, overseas clubs, etc. As you move down from the top of d1, player background will get weaker, but not that much.
I really feel for you! We were lucky in that by the time we felt we needed to move our son to a high level club team, our other kids were out of the house, AND we lived in an area that had several top teams close by. I have always said that there is no way we would have done all of the travel if we had other kids still at home. I can’t imagine being 1.5 hours away from practices! It was a huge commitment, and DS’s team practiced only 20 minutes from home. Still, with practices, scrimmages, regular season games, and tournaments, we spent hours traveling. Also, the higher up they go, the more and farther they travel, including several cross country tournaments a year. We did opt out of Academy only because in Calif, players can not participate in high school if they do Academy and that is something my son was not willing to give up.
DS is currently playing D2- he did have the opportunity for D1 but his school choice academically was the D2 school. I can tell you that on his team, there is no player that came directly from high school, and all came from very successful and Nationally ranked club teams. With D1, I would say that is even more the case. There may be exceptions, but I haven’t really seen them. The level of play on the better club teams is just so much higher that without that exposure, it is difficult for possible college recruits to compete for a spot with those who have been on very high level club teams. College coaches only attend the top tournaments so it is hard to get exposure if a player is playing on a more local level. College recruiting budgets are much tighter than they used to be, so many coaches just don’t have the funds to travel to smaller tournaments where they are less likely to find players. We did not feel that ID camps were very useful unless the Coach was already familiar with a specific player. The camps are usually pretty crowded and it is hard to stand out.
I am not trying to be discouraging- this is just what we have seen. It may be more possible for your son to find a D3 team, however D3 schools tend to be smaller if that is not something he would want. He could also look at club teams at D1 school- they are extremely competitive and include very talented players. He would definitely be challenged. I would still have him contact coaches when the time comes and invite them to watch him play. If you have any D1 schools close to you, you might find a coach willing to come watch. I wish only the best for you and your son!!!
thank you everyone for your thoughts. I think the only thing he is missing out on by not playing high level club is visibility… If he were a field player, I’d feel differently because pace of play would be so important. But he’s constantly challenged (thanks defense, LOL), plays 100% of every game for his club and gets fantastic keeper training from a college-level coach in a small group setting. So I’m not terribly concerned with his development, I think he’s doing great, it’s just his being seen that will be a disadvantage if he doesn’t move up. I welcome any more stories or advice.
Murray93 - We currrently drive 1 hr one way for my daughter to play on an ECNL club. This is our 3rd year of doing this and to tell the truth it is getting very tiring. Much like the DA on the boys side , right now ECNL is the tops on the girls side. We travel all over the country to play matches and are traveling cross county now. We went to the club because my daughter outgrew the local clubs. As you can tell by my name she is GK too. There are a lot of colleges out there that will need GK. Once he has a understanding of where he wants to go he can contact those colleges.
As far as college camps go, may daughter has been to 2 and they do cap the number of players that go. I can see it might be tough for a field player to stand out but for a GK it is not as hard. The 2 my daughter has been to both only took 6 gks. At the camp you work with the college GK coach and then play in goal for games. My daughter likes the college camps. Like I said a gk you get some one on one with the GK coach or at least it is a small setting for the gks.
I do understand what you mean about being seen. My daughters local club is sending whole teams to all different level of colleges. So all different coaches have been able to watch and want to watch the team. Our local clubs are lucky to send 3 or 4 girls to college. So the girls that play a the highest level want to play at the next level, college. This would be much the DA on the boys side. Just that the commitment level for the players is much greater. If you do decide to go the DA route don’t forget that there is always someone trying to take your sons place just like he most liekly would take someone elses.
Good luck with everything. It is a tough decision to make.
Thank you for the info from the GK perspective. Interesting about the camps because I’ve heard mixed reviews. But most likely from field players. Great to know it’s normally a small setting for the keeps. What year is your D and how many more years of commuting? That is tough!!
My son played DAP, and is now playing D2. A number of his former teammates are on DI teams, but probably an equal number play D3. Some of those that were on DI spent a year sitting on the bench and were off the team without every seeing the field. While DAP does get you great exposure there are other routes. He needs to be on a club team that goes to the big tornaments - Disney, Jefferson Cup, Surf Cup, etc. While those tournaments may not be as widely attended as the DAP Showcases, they are still attended by a lot of coaches. A local soccer site is listing commitments by local boys. Of 27 going DI, 9 played for 2 local DAP teams (1 MLS, 1 not). Several went to prep schools known for their soccer programs and the rest played for 2 or 3 local clubs.
We were not big fans of college camps. Unless you are already in contact with the coach you are unlikely to get a lot of attention unless you are a superstar. Some of them are huge. They are big moneymakers for the college coaches, so they tend to enroll a lot of players. If your son has the physical attributes needed to play goal in college (over 6 feet), get him some good goalie training, have him play on a club team (preferably where the coaches are also college coaches) that goes to big tournaments, and keep your fingers crossed. With all of the international players coming to play in the US (50% on my son’s team) it is getting harder and harder to play college soccer.
My son is 5’9" but he and his sister are both late bloomers… At 16, she measures 6’1"! My DH and I are both tall.
Ty, what is the attraction for internationals here in the US? To study AND play soccer? Interesting breakdown of the local commitments. I’ve been watching what the big city clubs here are showing for signings and nothing too impressive on the boys’ side. Which just goes to show how hard it is, even if you do all the right things and have all the right contacts.
Sports recruitment is not a big thing in most European universities, so players that want to come to the US find that they may be able to come here for school, get some money, and play soccer. Tyberius is correct that college recruitment for men in soccer is becoming more and more difficult. Goalie recruitment is definitely a different animal than that for field players. Your son may have a hard time getting attention until he goes through his growth spurt- our son was a late bloomer too (but as a field player) and had a tough time at D1 schools when he was a 5’9" HS junior- especially as he was competing for spots against 20/21 year old transfer students. He is now 6’2" but didn’t reach that height until his freshman year of college. It is just one more thing that the male recruits have to deal with! There are far fewer spots for male soccer players than for female, and at the big tournaments, we noticed there was usually a 3/1 ratio of women’s teamcollege coaches to men’s team college coaches. It is definitely helpful that your son is getting coaching from a college-level coach as he might be able to put out some feelers for your son. Good luck!
Another thing is, don’t wait for coaches to contact your son. Start making highlight videos of his play, both real games and skills training, and start sending them to college coaches. While they can’t yet contact you son directly, it is a good idea to get his face and name out there now!
I knew there were a number of international students on my D’s college men’s soccer team. I just went and checked, and there are 16 international players, 9 from Florida (and quite local at that; I think many were walk ons), and 3 from other states. It is a D2 school, private, and there is a high percentage of internationals at the school, and many are athletes.
So definitely competing not only with US players, but the whole world.
Some of the international players on son’s team were in the youth programs of professional teams in their home countries, and when they were told they were not going to make it to the next level they wanted to continue playing soccer. College soccer is not as big in their home countries so they came here. They are receiving scholarship money (certainly not full rides). Some of them have aspirations of playing professionally here. They are very good players. The college coaches have connections with coaches in other countries so they direct the players to the school. My son’s club coaches (also DI college coaches) sometimes made recruiting trips overseas.
Murray - fingers crossed that your son hits his growth spurt before his junior year. And film his games for recruiting videos.
What is your ultimate goal for your son’s education?
He is only in 8th grade right now so it’s hard to say. He is not very academically motivated, he does enough to get by and earns high B’s in pre-AP classes. He is, however, extremely motivated and focused on soccer and all other athletic endeavors. I can’t see him with a desk job and honestly I’m not sure he needs 4-year college with his current aspirations, but it is being paid for by a relative so why not be prepared for wherever life takes him?
Sounds like my kid. Not sure college would have been in the picture from his perspective if it was not a means to continue to play soccer. Now that he is in college he is getting more academically motivated.
@murray93
Another option might be to look into the Olympic Development Program for your State/Region. http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/programs/OlympicDevelopmentProgram/
While not equivalent to joining the USSF DA, making your state’s ODP team might provide some exposure that he wouldnt otherwise get. The practice frequency vary but would be far less than the DA. I understand about the drive time and financial commitments and not wanting to go there. The reality of today’s youth sports is that someone else will endure those things so just something to realize.
Your son should also be attending college soccer camps (summer, etc) at colleges he realistically thinks he wants to attend. There is also the fallback plan of playing college club soccer instead of “varsity” soccer as well since he doesnt need the financial help.
If there is one or more DAP in the area ODP is apt to be very watered down as Academy players are not allowed to do ODP. In our state it usually attracts those from small clubs, not those that travel to big tournaments as the club coaches usually do not like ODP. There are often time conflicts and a risk of injury. In my experience (son did ODP 2 or 3 years, several years ago) college coaches are usually not interested in ODP at the state level, only at the regional level.